Electrical installation.



F. W. FUNK.

ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 24. I9I6.

1,231,008. Patented June 26, 1917.

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.UNIE STATES, ATEN T orrron.

FRANK W. FUNK, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO.

ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION.

Application filed August 24, 1916. I Serial No. 116,602.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK W. FUNK, residing at Youngstown, in the county of Mahoning and State of .Ohio, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Electrical Installations, of which improvements the following is a specification.

My invention relates to electrical installations, and its object is to provide a tell-tale, which shall give visible or audible signal, in the event of an excess of potential, such as to effect a discharge through prearranged safety means. The invention is applicable to the safety apparatus commonly provided to protect high-tension transmission lines from the injurious effects of lightning and sudden surges of potential otherwise accidentally produced.

The invention in the particular application just indicated is illustrated in the accompanying diagram. The conductor 16 will be understood to be a discharge branch,

leading from a high-tension line, and adapted to relieve the line of sudden violent surges in potentialsurges which, if not cared for, may cause the breaking down of insulation and do other damage. This conductor, as shown, is interrupted in its length by an arcing gap 2, of the kind known as a horn gap, a lightning arrester 3, which may be of any desired form, and a second gap 5, which in this case is an auxiliary ground gap and which is as shown maintained between two spheres. As shown, this conductor is grounded at 6; this may be, and ordinarily will be, the earth, but it may be any suitable low-potential body, as will be well understood. My invention is in certain aspects not dependent on the presence of the gap 2, nor of the lightning arrester 3. It requires, as will presently appear, a gap across which an arc will be established by a high-tension surge or impulse. Nor are spheres required to define the gap 5, though ordinarily such a gap will be found suitable to the practice of my invention.

Another and independent circuit is indicated by the parallellines 8 and this circuit is, as the diagram shows, so arranged as also to include gap 5. That is to say,-eircuit 8 is normally incomplete and open, because of the interrupting gap 5.

Circuit 8 includes an electrically oper Specification of Letters Patent.

ter.

Patented J une 26, 1917.

ated tell-tale of any desired kind or charac- The diagram shows electric light bulbs 7 included in circuit 8; also an electric bell 9; and also a clock-recorder 10, the index of which will (as will be understood) be swung by the passage of current through circuit 8. It will be understood that one, and any one, or more of these tell-tale devices may be employed, situated at such point or points in circuit 8 as may be desired.

The source of electric energy supplied to circuit 8 is of such potential as to be incapable normally of leaping gap 5 to complete the circuit and to cause current to flow. WVhen, however, gap 5 is bridged by an are, due to an electric surge or discharge through branch 16, the gap so bridged will afford passage for current through circuit 8. Ourrent will flow, and the tell-tale device or devices will function, giving the desired visible or audible signal or record.

The power of the source of current feeding circuit 8 may be so adjusted or proportioned to the size of gap 5 that, though normally it will be incapable of driving a current across the gap; yet, when once the gap has been bridged and an are established (by a discharge through branch l6), the current will maintain for itself a path across the gap and will continue to flow, even after the arc-creating surge has passed. Thus a continuing signal may be maintained.

The principle involved in my invention will now be perceived: when once an arc is established across a gap, a current from a second source of electric energy, itself unable to leap the gap, will readily flow; and, further, when such a secondary current has once been established, less energy is required to keep its path open and to cause the flow of current to continue than was originally required to establish the current.

The invention is useful, not merely to give a signal, or to make a record; if the recording instrument such as is indicated at 10 be employed, itmay serve as a check upon the attendant whose duty it is, in such installations as that indicated above, to test at stated times the lightning arrester and see that it is in order.

In the ensuing claim I use the terms hightension and low-tension, terms which in common usage are relative terms. In this connection their significance will be appar ent: they define potential, in respect.to its ability-or inabilitymnaided to leap the gap 5 of the apparatus.

I claim as my invention:

In an electrical installation, a'line for the transmission of electrical impulse including a gap, a low-tension circuit including the same gap, a source of electrical energy in said'low-tension circuit of potential insuflh cient to cause its current "to leap the gap While conditions are normal but suflicient to Intestimony whereof I have hereunto set w my hand.

FRANK W. FUNK. lVitnesses:

;E. H. :EEIL,

G. A. HARRINGTON.

Copies ofqthis patentmay he ohtaipedpfortfive cents eaeh,:by addressinggihe g0omnjiissionerof Patents,

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